324 Field Columbian Museum — Anthropology, Vol. V. 



husband, Moon, brought in the beef, she saved sinew, from which 

 she made a bowstring (twisted like a rope). She did this until her 

 husband asked her about it. "Why do you make so many bow- 

 strings ?" said Moon. "Well, I need them in my business," said the 

 woman. "These strings do not last long in tanning; therefore I have 

 to have more on hand. Don't you get the idea?" said the woman. 



Moon was Industrie us and brought beef every day. After she 

 had aided in slicing the meat, she placed the sinew aside, and 

 when by herself made more sinew strings, until she had plenty of them. 

 One day, after the husband had gone on the hunt, she packed her boy 

 quickly and got the sinew strings and started oflf with the digging 

 stick. She went directly t6 the place she had spotted and began dig- 

 ging a hole big enough for herself and the boy. She laid the digging 

 stick across the hole and fastened the long string to the stick, and the 

 other end she tied around her waist. She placed her hoy on her back 

 and let herself down gradually, until she came within a short distance 

 of the ground. She was hanging on the end of the sinew string a short 

 distance from the camp, in the west. 



The husband, Moon, returned from the hunt and found but one 

 wife and her boy at^ home. "That is the reason that I said to you folks 

 not to dig deep in the ground," said Moon. So in the morning he went 

 out to search for his wife and his boy. He could not find them for some 

 time, till at last he tracked her to the digging stick, which was lying 

 across the hole. Then he came up close to it and found that the sinew 

 string was fastened securely to the stick. He then peeped down and 

 saw his wife, with the boy on her back, suspended on the string just a 

 short distance from the ground, swinging to and fro. "Well, there is 

 one way to get them down. The people do not know that they are 

 hanging on the sinew string," said Moon. So he walked off and picked 

 up a round stone. "Now I want you to light on top of her head, not on 

 my boy's head !" said Moon to the round stone. He cast the stone down 

 and it traveled along the sinew string until it struck her on her head, 

 which caused her to let go the string, killing her. Both landed on the 

 side of a sand-hill near the willow slough, some distance from the 

 camp-circle. 



The boy gradually got off from his mother's back and played 

 about. When his mother's body was somewhat decomposed and he 

 could no longer obtain milk from her breast, he walked toward the river 

 for a drink, leaving traces of his footsteps. The boy slept under his 

 mother's arm, which made him smell dreadfully. 



One morning a young man watered a herd of ponies near the dead 



